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Rikke's Reviews > The Essential Rumi
The Essential Rumi
by
by
�This place is a dream.
Only a sleeper considers it real.�
This is a hard book for me to rate. It almost seems impossible, unbearable to only reward it with three stars. Parts of it gently touched my soul, and reading those few lines of pure beauty, almost felt revolutionary. Rumi is mostly known for his love poems, and I can clearly see why. There's a certain hint of unision and belonging in his great visions of love and he strings his words together in such a delicate serenity. I fell in love with his idea of love.
However there were uninteresting parts as well and I skipped a few long poems along the way. Some of it felt too religious, too spiritual for my simple want of beautiful words. Some of Rumi's metaphors felt weak and insufficient, some of his musings were too repetitive.
Good parts and bad parts. The three stars both resemble divine inspiration and repetitive boredom. That is why I am so ambivalent about it.
�Birds make great sky-circles
of their freedom.
How do they learn it?
They fall, and falling,
they're given wings.�
Only a sleeper considers it real.�
This is a hard book for me to rate. It almost seems impossible, unbearable to only reward it with three stars. Parts of it gently touched my soul, and reading those few lines of pure beauty, almost felt revolutionary. Rumi is mostly known for his love poems, and I can clearly see why. There's a certain hint of unision and belonging in his great visions of love and he strings his words together in such a delicate serenity. I fell in love with his idea of love.
However there were uninteresting parts as well and I skipped a few long poems along the way. Some of it felt too religious, too spiritual for my simple want of beautiful words. Some of Rumi's metaphors felt weak and insufficient, some of his musings were too repetitive.
Good parts and bad parts. The three stars both resemble divine inspiration and repetitive boredom. That is why I am so ambivalent about it.
�Birds make great sky-circles
of their freedom.
How do they learn it?
They fall, and falling,
they're given wings.�
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Reading Progress
September 14, 2013
–
Started Reading
September 14, 2013
– Shelved
October 2, 2013
– Shelved as:
religion
October 2, 2013
– Shelved as:
poetry
October 2, 2013
– Shelved as:
philosophy
October 2, 2013
–
Finished Reading
Comments Showing 1-3 of 3 (3 new)
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Coleman's poetic "translations" are so far from literal, that you really have to sayColeman's metaphors are weak. They same should go for the repetition, but from what I gather, the original Rumi was just as repetitive, if not moreso.
Rumi was a sufi and if you read about Sufies their life revolves around God. but well you should probably buy one of westernized versions of Rumi's poetry which is perfectly deprived of culture and religion.
all else is poor translation.�
Peace - Sarfaraz Mulla